Welcome back to Work-at-Home Saturday! If you’d like to feature your work-at-home story and tips here, please email [email protected]. Please note: This is not a space to simply advertise your home-based business, although it can of course include links to your business. It is intended as a space to share your story, help others see how they could do something similar, spark ideas on different ways to work from home, and give tips for success.
Amanda’s Scentsy Story
I started selling Scentsy in September 2011, and during that holiday season made close to $1000 from mid-September to December — a great payoff, considering that the consultant kit/agreement just ran $99. I chose to sell Scentsy because at the time I had two boys, one with autism and both with speech difficulties and needed something extra to supplement my income. Since then, we have added a third son to the chaos!
Learning to love Scentsy
When I was first introduced to Scentsy about two years ago, I honestly wasn’t a huge fan. I loved their warmers, but not so many of the scents. The hook came the following March, when Scentsy released their charitable cause warmer — a warmer called Piece by Piece, which benefited Autism Speaks. That was the first warmer I purchased, and then I tried it again with different fragrances. Since then, and with the help of my consultant (now my director), I have fallen in love with the majority of the scents. I’m traditionally a food/spice scent kind of person, but the spring scents that Scentsy released are WONDERFUL. I’m also very excited about the new fall scents that Scentsy released on September 1st, including French Toast, Apple Press, Dulce de Leche, and Frosted Ginger Cookie.
What Scentsy sells
Scentsy not only offers warmers and scented wax, they also offer Layers, a line of personal care and laundry care products. I am a big fan of the solid perfume (and I’m not really a perfume kind of person). They also have Scentsy buddies, a line of stuffed animals that have a pocket for a scent pak of your favorite fragrance. With each new catalog (two a year) they also offer a charitable cause warmer that benefits a foundation voted on by Scentsy consultants. In the new 2012 Fall and Winter catalog, proceeds from the charitable cause warmer will go to support the Special Olympics. They also have warmers that donate proceeds to firefighters, police, EMTs, and our armed forces.You can check out all of the products at http://amandastribling.scentsy.us/.
On May 1st of this year, the Scentsy Family launched Velata, a line of chocolate fondue warmers with silicone dishes that can go in your fridge and microwave along with specially crafted Belgian chocolate. A third line, Grace Adele, is a line of stylish and sophisticated handbags and accessories designed with an “intelligent interior” — an interior with pockets designed for the matching wallets, notebooks, cellphones. These also come with a TSA approved resealable clear plastic bag for all of your travel size bottles. Best of all, this line uses five simple steps to help people like me (who are used to carrying diaper bags!) create a fashionable look that coordinates my jewelry, accessories, and my handbag.
What you can earn
Across the board for all three brands (Scentsy, Grace Adele, and Velata) consultants initially earn 20% commission on their sales until they hit $1000 in cumulative sales. At that point, your commission is bumped to 25%. There are no order requirements for consultants. In order to stay “active,” however, you need to sell $150 in a 3 month consecutive period. But, consultant agreements are not terminated until January 1, giving lots of leeway for consultants to arrange the business to best suit their needs.
Scentsy Family also provides great (yet easily attainable) goals for your first 15 days and first 70 days as a consultant, ranging from purchasing a pack of warmers at a great discount, to product credit, to purchasing what you want. Another factor that makes it super-easy to be successful is that by selling one of their brands (Scentsy, Grace Adele, or Velata), you can recruit for all 3, which is practically unheard of in direct sales. If you sell more than one brand, all of your sales go into a combined “pot.”
Tips for getting started
If you are interested in starting a business with Scentsy, Grace Adele, or Velata, I would strongly encourage you first to find out which line you LOVE. It will be so much easier for you to achieve your goals and sell if you love what you are selling!
Then, be adventurous — talk it up! Start out by making what Scentsy calls their “list of 100,” or, one hundred people you know from church, work, the gym, parent groups, school parents, work associates of your spouse’s, long distance relatives, etc. Get on the phone, share your enthusiasm, and introduce them to Scentsy, Grace Adele, or Velata if they haven’t been already!
You could also host your launch party in your own home, earn commission on what you sell, AND get the hostess rewards from the party. If you do not already have a consultant for any of these brands, I would be more than willing to answer any questions you may have about starting your own business with Scentsy Family. I am part of a great team in Central Illinois, but we also have members in Wyoming, Indiana, and Ohio.
Marketing the products
The fall season is the best sale period for Scentsy. Start asking around about holiday open houses — one idea is to get together with other direct sales consultants and do a one stop shopping event for Christmas. Other ways to market include doing fundraisers for local groups (think church mission trips or school PTOs), displaying products at your local fall festival, and encouraging your friends, family, (and future customers) to book parties! There are so many ways for people to host parties even if their home doesn’t accommodate a large quantity of people — the only way really not to succeed at this is not to try.
Here are a few other ways I sell Scentsy products:
- I sell from my own Scentsy website.
- I host parties in my home (about one every quarter).
- I have done parties in other people’s homes.
I also do tote parties, where a customer will take a bag with some samples in it, mini testers so others can experience the fragrance, catalogs, order forms, and whatever specials I am running that month. They’ll take that tote to work, church, etc., they’ll collect orders, and then I sort and package the orders when they come in and deliver them to the hostess. The hostess gets all of the host rewards, I earn money, and the hostess doesn’t have to worry about cleaning her house! This is a win on all fronts.
Income potential
September-December was my busiest time last year, including my launch party, one home party, one tote party, and two holiday open house shopping events. You really do get out what you put in to it, so your income will vary based on how many parties you have per month.
Summer tends to be a harder sell because so many families are on vacation, kids are in summer sports, and so on, but it is still possible to make a decent commission during the summer months. With just one $500 party a month, you get $125 in commission. Figure 2-3 hours for a party, an hour to set up, about 30 -45 min for packing up your things (or less, depending on how much you bring), and you could average about $25 an hour. Vendor shows like holiday open houses are a little more labor-intensive (usually 6-8 hours if it’s a weekend show), but can also pay off with better profits.
Benefits
Being a part of Scentsy’s family has been great for me! I have fabulous support, not only from Scentsy corporate, but also online from my director and fellow consultants. There are a ton of training tools and ideas available on the consultant workstation that you can access at any time. Scentsy really has given me a wonderful opportunity to make the most of this job on MY time, on MY terms, with very reasonable requirements. If I’m having a horrendously busy month because of school schedules, work schedules, and therapy schedules, I don’t HAVE to work my business as hard as I have in other months. One of the many great things about Scentsy is that I can work my business while I live my life, and that my business doesn’t have to run me.
Current promos
During the month of September, Scentsy’s midsize Pumpkin warmer and Caramel Pear Crisp scent are 10% off. If you haven’t checked them out already, please visit http://amandastribling.scentsy.us/ to learn more. All warmers carry a lifetime guarantee against manufacturer’s or electrical defects, and Scentsy support has been excellent at replacing items with no hassle.
Get in touch
If I can answer any questions, help you launch your own Scentsy Family business, or put you in contact with someone closer to you who could, please let me know! You can reach me at [email protected] or on Facebook at Amanda Stribling, Independent Scentsy Consultant.
